Our travel from Alberta to New Brunswick was supposed to take 15 hours total. First flight: Lethbridge at 5:10 am. Plane there, passengers there, but no flight crew. They showed up at 6am, making us miss our Calgary connection. No notification from AC, no explanation, no apology.

We were initially supposed to arrive in NB at 5:30pm. After rebooking, we arrived at 2:30am, an extra 9 hours of travel.

We got a $10 meal voucher and assurances our seat selection fees for missed flights would be refunded. While we sat in the terminal for 5+ hours waiting for our flight, could hear AC offering passengers on overbooked flights $800 to take a later flight.

After our return, complained to AC, arguing that we should get a similar offer, as the delay wasn't due to weather or mechanical, but a result of AC's actions, similar to overbooking. Offered a 20% discount on next flight. AC refused to respond after that.

Filed a complaint with Canadian Transportation Agency. Because there's no specific law compelling AC to compensate, like there is when you get bumped due to overbooking, CTA can do nothing. Finally got the seat selection fees refunded, 5 months later.

Skipping a lot of detail, but at every step, AC's primary concerns were to avoid accountability and attempt to cut off access for passengers to air complaints and give them due consideration.